1–What is the title of your latest release? SOME TOUCH OF MADNESS 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Regency-era writer and dagger-wielding badass Miss Emmeline St. Germaine is the kind of woman you want on your side in a fight. But when her rights are stripped from her and she is sent to an asylum where murder is afoot, with enemies all around her, will she figure out whom to fight, and how? 3—Some Touch of Madness is a sequel to A Gentlewoman’s Guide to Murder; first, tell us a little about Book #1, and then, how did it being a sequel affect your writing of Some Touch of Madness? A GENTLEWOMAN’S GUIDE TO MURDER started with Miss Emmeline St. Germaine, who is determined to right wrongs in her Regency England society. She and her band of women – who call themselves the Crones – rescue abused scullery maids and young ladies being forced into unwanted marriages. Murder hits too close to home, and to save herself from being suspected and perhaps hanged for the crime, she needs to unearth the perpetrator. Some Touch of Madness finds Emmeline still advocating for the abused, but also in peril herself…

One of the most common questions writers are faced with is: where do you get your ideas? And we usually answer, from everywhere! That’s true, but a little too general. My ideas do come from everything I read, watch, think about and experience. But each different series I write calls for different kinds of ideas. Take, for example, the Merry Muffin Mysteries I write for Beyond the Page Publishing. It is a given that when you own a castle and need to make money for the upkeep, you are bound to think of ways to make a few bucks that include TV and movies. Merry Wynter (Merry Muffin Mysteries – Beyond the Page Publishing) has that dilemma and has solved it a few times with movie shoots of the exterior and interior of her American castle in Western New York State. She and her friend and business partner Pish Lincoln even hosted a ghost hunting show in one memorable instance! But an opera-singing reality TV show? When Opera DivaNation is tossed from the hotel where they are shooting, Pish – as a fundraiser for the Lexington Opera Company, a couple of members of which are judges and mentors on the…

Welcome to the Fresh Fiction Valentine’s Day Recipe Roundup! Every day this week, some of our favorite authors will be on the blog chatting about their new books, their main characters, and a recipe for a meal or treat those characters would enjoy this festive week. Today, we have mystery authors from Midnight Ink. Enjoy, and come back tomorrow for more fun! JD Allen, SKIN GAME The Sin City Investigations books launched in 2018 with 19 Souls, February 8th, Skin released. Private investigator Jim Bean has worked hard to create his new identity in Las Vegas. Now his life’s on cruise control, destination nowhere. He’s got clients enough to pay his bills, a cat, and a stash of Scotch. But life’s not as static as he’d like. His tragic past collides with a dangerous present when ex-fiancé Erica Floyd walks into his investigation. She’s looking for her missing sister. Bean can’t refuse her and the clues lead him to human traffickers and one of Vegas’ biggest hotel moguls. He’s got to face ghosts of his past, his anger of the present, and a brand new enemy to save four women from a fate worse than death. Jim’s not a fancy…

This week I’m featuring three cozies that caught my attention with their titles. I love a good, quirky title. To be specific, one that can make me smile or release an inner snicker at the puniful twist the author used. Not only does it give a good sense of what the book is about, but it also gives the reader a taste of the author’s sense of humor. I dare you not to see the humor in these three mysteries;) MUFFIN TO FEAR by Victoria Hamilton Merry Muffin In the latest from the national bestselling author of Much Ado About Muffin, newlywed baker Merry Wynter has some unwanted guests looking for ghosts at Wynter Castle… While Merry is distracted by her quickly planned marriage to Virgil Grace and a blissful honeymoon in New York, her friend Pish invites the ghost-hunting crew from the TV show Haunt Hunt to investigate Merry’s home, Wynter Castle. Merry soon discovers that not only is the crew out of sync, there are so many feuds and squabbles, it’s a miracle they get a show produced at all. It all goes from bad to worse when the show’s psychics claim to have contact with people murdered…

Whether you like to sit on the porch with a hardback book in your hands, or with your Kindle or Nook on your lap, this week I’ve chosen four mystery must-reads to enjoy during your summer nights. Pour a glass of iced tea and join these great heroines and their quirky sidekicks in a cozy corner—each one is a treat not to be missed! ONLY SKEIN DEEP by Maggie Sefton Knitting Mystery In the latest novel from The New York Times bestselling author of Knit to Be Tied, Kelly Flynn and The Lambspun Knitters are eagerly awaiting a bundle of joy but find themselves heaped with trouble instead… Kelly Flynn and her boyfriend, Steve, couldn’t be happier as they await the birth of their bouncing baby boy. Kelly’s got a built-in group of fiber arts specialists, the Lambspun Knitters, who are working away on blankets and booties. As they sit around the table crafting their keepsakes, the story of Giselle Callahan is a popular topic of conversation. Giselle is the young wife of Henry Callahan, a Fort Connor banking scion, who traded in his previous wife of forty years for a newer model. Giselle’s prowess as a skilled country club…

One of my favorite mystery series of all time is Joan Hess’s Maggody series. She is the master of creating weird, wild, and yet lovable characters. Anyone who has taken the trip to Maggody, Arkansas and lived a while among the Buchanons knows exactly what I mean. I’ve read all the titles, and some more than once. So when I set out to create the folks of Autumn Vale, New York, for the Merry Muffin Mystery series, it was with an eye to creating a unique world of people who had lived in an insulated environment for so long they had kind of a short hand in dealing with each other. Merry Wynter, I figured, would arrive like a visitor to a foreign country; she doesn’t speak the language and she isn’t sure how to deal with the natives. I carefully say it was with an eye to creating it, because I found in writing the books that my own style, so thoroughly grounded in reality, didn’t lend itself to the wonderfully weird characterizations that Hess manages. It could easily have become a case of an author shooting for the stars and managing only to launch a few bottle rockets….